Yunshan Jiang

After the second meeting with Sarah, she gave me a lot of insightful suggestion. I noticed some contents I missed and some thought should be articulated. The key missing part for my thesis is what is the impact of my project, and why it is matter. She still ask me to think about “Does interactive media allow for different ways of engaging with the core Buddhist philosophies in ways newly relevant for today? ” For the research, it should answer my thesis question and focus on measuring the impact. Last, she suggest me to draw storyboard before actually doing the project. It will help me envision the form of my thesis. 

After, this meeting and her feedback of my proposal, I will think about more about the meaning of the thesis and do more research. The thesis should not be only an experimental or technical challenge for me to visualize personality, I need to think about the influence it might have.

After the first group meeting with my classmates, I saw many interesting ideas from them. Ada, Jun and Yueqing’s thoughts are related to elder group in society. Elizabeth wants to visualize radio waves. They also shared some artists who inspired them and brainstorm process. I illustrated my idea to them and they give me some feedbacks. First, how to visualize the concept of six unwholesome factors to visitors intelligibly. Second, do the concepts I wanted to convey to audience need pre-knowledge? Last, Elizabeth said it is interesting that different regions have similar concept of human’s unwholesome emotion (like Christian seven sins).

I just finished the first meeting with professor Sarah Rothberg. She gave me a lot of valuable research suggestions and direction which let me think about what form and content are suitable for my condition.

First, I introduced myself and my education and career background. Then I demonstrated my works that were made during the IMA LOW RES. After that, I shared my idea of thesis and according to my demonstration, Sarah asked me some critical questions that guided me to think about deeper about my thesis topic. 

My thesis is still related to buddhism. I said “still” because I had made two projects about this topic in our program. I want to explore more possibilities and extend what I had done. Before, my buddhism related projects have less educational or thought-provoking contents. This time I want to focus on the “six unwholesome factors(attachment, anger, ignorance, pride, doubt, wrong view)” mentioned in buddhist philosophy and try to guide people to meditate and remove negative emotions whiling visiting my project. My thought was utilizing VR to build an environment for meditation.

Sarah suggested me look VR meditation apps in market. She asked me what the target audience is and where will the space or surrounding environment will the project locate. She also suggested me research on Lawrence Lek, Ian Cheng and other artists’ projects and careers. By looking at their grow up process in their fields, I may think about what is the realm I am trying to develop. Last, She hoped me keep research on the “six unwholesome factors” and thought why these factors are worth noting in 2023. 

This is Yunshan’s test post